Participation in sports at any level either professional or amateur requires an athlete to strive to bring their bodies to a physical state which is considered optimum for the sport of interest. One of the factors that correlate positively with successful participation in a sport is a high degree of development of the aerobic capacity and/or strength of skeletal muscle. Consequently, it is important that nutrients and other requirements of muscles be readily available and that they be transported to areas where they are needed without obstructions.
Strength and aerobic capacity are both functions of training and of muscle mass. As such, an athlete who can train harder and longer is often considered to be the most effective at participation in the sport of interest. Strenuous exercise is an effective stimulus for protein synthesis. However, muscle requires a large array of nutrients, including amino acids, in order to facilitate this increased level of protein synthesis.
Following periods of strenuous exercise, muscle tissue enters a stage of rapid nitrogen absorption in the form of amino acids and small peptides. This state of increased nitrogen absorption is a result of the body repairing exercise-induced muscle fiber damage as well as the growth and formation of new muscle fibers. It is important that muscles have sufficient levels of nitrogen, in the form of amino acids and small peptides, during this period of repair and growth. When an athlete is participating in a strenuous exercise regime and fails to ingest enough nitrogen, e.g. amino acids, the body often enters a state of negative nitrogen balance. A negative nitrogen balance is a state in which the body requires more nitrogen, to facilitate repair and growth of muscle, than is being ingested. This state causes the body to catabolize muscle in order to obtain the nitrogen required, and thus results in a decrease in muscle mass and/or attenuation of exercise-induced muscle growth. Therefore, it is important that athletes ingest adequate amounts of amino acids in order to minimize the catabolism of muscle in order to obtain the results desired from training.
Although supplementation with amino acids are quite common, the uptake of amino acids by cells is limited or slow since amino acid residues are not soluble or only slightly soluble in nonpolar organic solution, such as the lipid bilayer of cells. As a result amino acids must be transported into cells via transport mechanisms which are specific to the charges that the amino acid bears. It is therefore desirable to provide, for use in individuals, e.g. animals and humans, forms and derivatives of amino acids with improved characteristics that result in increased stability and increased uptake by cells. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to do so in a manner that provides additional functionality as compared to amino acids alone.
Fatty acids are carboxylic acids, often containing a long, unbranched chain of carbon atoms and are either saturated or unsaturated. Saturated fatty acids do not contain double bonds or other functional groups, but contain the maximum number of hydrogen atoms, with the exception of the carboxylic acid group. In contrast, unsaturated fatty acids contain one or more double bonds between adjacent carbon atoms, of the chains, in cis or trans configuration
The human body can produce all but two of the fatty acids it requires, thus, essential fatty acids are fatty acids that must be obtained from food sources due to an inability of the body to synthesize them, yet are required for normal biological function. The fatty acids which are essential to humans are linoleic acid and α-linolenic acid.
Examples of saturated fatty acids include, but are not limited to myristic or tetradecanoic acid, palmitic or hexadecanoic acid, stearic or octadecanoic acid, arachidic or eicosanoic acid, behenic or docosanoic acid, butyric or butanoic acid, caproic or hexanoic acid, caprylic or octanoic acid, capric or decanoic acid, and lauric or dodecanoic acid, wherein the aforementioned comprise from at least 4 carbons to 22 carbons in the chain.
Examples of unsaturated fatty acids include, but are not limited to oleic acid, linoleic acid, linolenic acid, arachidonic acid, palmitoleic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid, docosahexaenoic acid and erucic acid, wherein the aforementioned comprise from at least 4 carbons to 22 carbons in the chain.
Fatty acids are capable of undergoing chemical reactions common to carboxylic acids. Of particular relevance to the present invention are the formation of anhydrides and the formation of esters.